Anthroposophical Ethics (1928)

Schmidt Number: S-2601

On-line since: 31st October, 2017

II

I

remarked yesterday that what we have to say on the subject of
anthroposophical moral principles and impulses will be based
upon facts, and for this reason we brought forward a few facts
in which moral impulses are pre-eminently exhibited.

It
is, indeed, most striking and illuminating that in the case of
a personality such as Francis of Assisi mighty moral impulses
must have been active in order that he could perform his deeds.
What sort of deeds were they? They were such that what they
reveal is moral in the very highest sense of the word. Francis
of Assisi was surrounded by people afflicted with very serious
diseases for which the rest of the world at that time knew no
cure. Moral impulses were so powerful in him that many lepers
through him were given spiritual aid and great comfort. It is
true that many could gain no more — but there were many others
who by their faith and trust attained a stage when the moral
impulses and forces which poured forth from Francis of Assisi
had even a healing, health-giving effect.

In
order to penetrate still more deeply into the question whence
do moral impulses come, we must inquire in the case of such an
exceptional personality as Francis of Assisi as to how he
could, develop them; and what had really happened in his case.
We shall have to look more deeply if we want to understand what
was active in the soul of this outstanding human being.

Let us go back to the ancient civilisation of India. In that
civilisation there were certain divisions of the people; they
were divided into four castes, the highest of them being
the Brahmins, who cultivated wisdom. The separation of the
castes in ancient India was so strict that, for example, the
sacred books might only be read by the Brahmins and not by
members of the other castes. The members of the second caste,
the Warrior caste, were only allowed to hear the teachings
contained in the Vedas or in the epitome of the Vedas — the
Vedanta. The Brahmins alone were allowed to explain any passage
from the Vedas or have an opinion as to their meaning and it
was strictly forbidden for all other people to have any opinion
on the treasure of wisdom which was contained in the sacred
books. The second caste consisted of those who had to cultivate
the profession of war and the administration of the
country. Then there was a third caste which had to foster
trades, and a fourth, a labouring caste. And last of all, an
utterly despised part of the population, the Pariahs, who were
looked down upon so much that a Brahmin felt he was
contaminated if he so much as stepped upon the shadow thrown by
such a one. He even had to perform certain rites of
purification if he had touched the shadow of such an outcast as
a Pariah was considered to be. Thus we see how the whole
nation was divided into four recognised castes and one that was
absolutely unrecognised. Though these regulations may now
be considered severe they were most strictly observed in
ancient India. Even at the time of the Graeco-Latin
civilisation in Europe, no one belonging to the Warrior caste
in India would have ventured to have his own independent
opinion about what was in the sacred books, the Vedas. Now, how
could such divisions as these have arisen amongst mankind? It
is certainly remarkable that we should find these castes
exactly in the most outstanding people of human antiquity and
in the very people who had wandered over to Asia from Atlantis
at a comparatively early date and also precisely those amongst
whom were preserved the greatest wisdom and treasures of
knowledge from the old Atlantean epoch. This seems very
remarkable, and how can we understand it? It almost seems as if
it contradicted all the wisdom and goodness in the order of the
universe, in the guidance of the world, that one caste, one
group of people should be separated off, who alone were to
preserve what was looked upon as the highest possessions and
that the others should be destined from the very beginning, by
the mere fact of their birth, to occupy subordinate
positions.

This can only be understood by an examination into the secrets
of existence. Development is only possible through
differentiation, through organisation; and if all men had
wished to arrive at the degree of wisdom reached in the Brahmin
caste not a single one would have been able to achieve it. If
all human beings do not attain to the highest wisdom, one may
not say that it is a contradiction of the Divine regulation of
the world, for this would have no more sense than if someone
were to demand of the infinitely wise and infinitely mighty
Deity that He should make a triangle with four angles. No god
could make a triangle other than with three angles. That which
is ordered and determined inwardly in spirit must also be
observed by the divine regulation of the world, and just as the
laws concerning the limits of space are strict, for example,
that a triangle can only have three angles, so also if is a
strict law that development must come about through
differentiation, that certain groups of people must be
separated in order that a particular quality of human nature
can be developed. To this end the others must be excluded
for a time. This is not only a law for development of mankind,
it is a law for the whole of evolution.

Consider the human form. You will at once admit that the most
valuable parts in the human form are the bones of the head. But
by what means could these particular bones become bones of the
head and envelop the higher organ, the brain? As far as the
rudiments are concerned, each bone that man possesses could
become a skull-bone, but in order that a few of the bones of
the whole skeleton could reach this height of development and
become bones of the forehead or of the back part of the head,
the hip bones or the joints had to stop at a lower stage of
development — for the hip bones or the joints have within them
the possibility of becoming skull bones, just as much as
those which actually have done so. It is the same everywhere
throughout the world. Progress is only possible in evolution
through one remaining behind and another pushing forward, even
beyond a certain point of deve1opment. In India the Brahmins
passed beyond a certain average of development, but on the
other hand the lower castes remained behind it.

When the Atlantean catastrophe took place, great bodies of
people gradually wandered from Atlantis, that ancient continent
which lay where the Atlantic Ocean is to-day, towards the East,
and peopled the continents now known as Europe, Asia and
Africa. We shall not at present consider the few who went
westward, whose descendants were found in America by its
discoverers. When the Atlantean catastrophe took place, the
body of people which then migrated towards the East did not
consist merely of the four castes which settled down in
India and there gradually differentiated themselves, but there
were seven castes, and the four which appeared in India were
the four higher castes. Besides the fifth, which was completely
despised and which in India formed, as it were, an
intermediate body of the population, besides these
Pariahs there were other castes which did not accompany them as
far as India, but remained behind in various parts of Europe,
Asia Minor and especially Africa. Only the more highly
developed castes reached India, and those who remained in
Europe had entirely different qualities.

Indeed, one can only understand what took place later in Europe
when one knows that the more advanced sections of humanity in
those days reached Asia, and that in Europe, forming the main
body of the population left behind, were those who furnished
the possibility for very special incarnations. If we wish to
understand the special incarnations of souls in the most
ancient European times in the general mass of the population we
must take into account a remarkable event which took place in
the Atlantean epoch. At a certain stage in Atlantean
development great secrets of existence were betrayed; these
were great truths, concerning life, which are of infinitely
greater importance than all those to, which post-Atlantean
humanity has since attained. It was essential that this
knowledge should have been limited to small circles, but owing
to the violation of the mysteries, great bodies of the
Atlantean population became possessed of occult knowledge for
which they were not yet ripe. In consequence of this, their
souls were at that time driven, as one might say, into a
condition which was a moral descent, so that there remained on
the path of goodness and virtue only those who later went over
to Asia.

You must not, however, imagine that the whole population of
Europe consisted
only of people in whose souls, were individuals who through
being misled in the Atlantean epoch had suffered a moral
downfall. Here and there in this European population were
others who during the great emigration to Asia had remained
behind to act as leaders. Thus, all over Europe, Asia Minor and
Africa there were people who simply belonged to castes or races
providing the requisite conditions for misguided souls to live
in their bodies and there were also other better and more
highly developed souls who remained behind to
guide those who did not go on to Asia.

The best places for these souls who had to assume the
leadership at that time — in the age in which the Indian and
Persian civilisations developed — were the more northerly parts
of Europe, the regions where the oldest mysteries of Europe
have flourished. Now they had a kind of protective arrangement
as regards what had previously taken place in old Atlantis. In
Atlantis temptation came to the souls described, through
wisdom, mysteries and occult truths being given them for which
they were not ready. Therefore in the European Mysteries the
treasures of wisdom had to be guarded and protected all the
more. For this reason the true leaders in Europe in
post-Atlantean times withdrew themselves entirely and they
preserved what they had received as a strict secret.

We
may say that in Europe also there were persons who might be
compared with the Brahmins of Asia, but these European Brahmins
were not outwardly known as such by anyone. In the
strictest sense of the word they kept the sacred secrets
absolutely secluded in the Mysteries, that there might be no
repetition of what had once taken place in the Atlantean epoch
among the souls whom they were now leading onwards. Only
through Wisdom being protected and most carefully guarded did
it come about that these souls were able to uplift themselves;
for differentiation does not take place in such a way that a
certain portion of humanity is destined from the beginning to
take a lower rank than another, but that which is made lower at
a certain time is to develop higher again at another period.
But the conditions must be formed for this end to be
attainable. Hence it came about that in Europe there were souls
who had fallen into temptation and had become immoral, but they
were now guided according to wisdom which proceeded from deeply
hidden sources.

Now, the other castes who had gone to India had also left
members behind in Europe. The members of the second Indian
caste — the Warrior caste — were those who then chiefly
attained to power in Europe. Where the wise teachers — that is,
those who corresponded to the Indian Brahmins — entirely
withdrew, and gave their counsels from hidden sanctuaries, the
Warriors came out among the people, in order to improve and
uplift them according to the counsels of those ancient
European priests. It was this second caste that wielded the
greatest power in Europe in primeval times, but in their way of
life they were guided by the wise teachers who remained hidden.
Thus it came about that the leading personalities in Europe
were those who shone by virtue of the qualities of which we
spoke yesterday — valour and bravery. Whereas in India, wisdom
was held in the highest esteem and the Brahmins were revered
because they explained the sacred writing; in Europe
bravery and valour were the most valued and the people only
knew of the divine mysteries through those who were filled with
valour and bravery. The civilisation of Europe continued under
these influences for thousands of years and gradually souls
were improved and uplifted. In Europe, where souls
existed who were the successors of the people who had undergone
temptation, no real appreciation of the caste system of India
could develop. The souls were mingled and interwoven. A
division, a differentiation into castes such as existed in
India did not arise. The division was rather between those who
guided in an upper class, who acted as leaders in various
directions, and the class that was led. The latter consisted
principally of souls who had to struggle upward.

'"

When we look for the souls which gradually struggled upwards
out of this lower class, and which from being tempted developed
higher, we find them chiefly in a part of the European
population of which modern history tells but little. Century
after century this people developed in order to rise to a
higher stage, to recover again, as it were, from the heavy
set-back the souls had received in the Atlantean epoch. In Asia
there was a continuation in the progress of civilisation;
in Europe, on the other hand, there was a change from the
former moral collapse into a gradual moral
improvement.

The people in Europe remained in this condition for a long
time, and improvement only came about through the existence of
a strong impulse in these souls to imitate that which they saw
before them. Those who lived and worked among the people as the
braver among them were looked up to as ideals and patterns, as
leaders or chiefs, they were those who were called
FÃ¼rsten (princes) and were imitated by the people at
large. Thus the morality of the whole of Europe was raised
through those souls mingling as leaders amongst the people.

Thereby something else became necessary in European
development. If we wish to understand this, we must distinguish
between the development of a single soul and that of a whole
race. The two must not be confused. A human soul can develop in
such a way that in one incarnation it embodies itself in a
particular race. If in this race it gains certain qualities, it
may re-embody itself in a later incarnation in an entirely
different one; so that we may find incarnated in Europe at the
present day souls which in a previous incarnation were embodied
in India, Japan or China. The souls do not by any means remain
in the same race, for soul development is quite different from
race development, which goes its peaceful way forward.

In
ancient times, souls who were unable to go over into the
Asiatic races, were transposed into European ones, and were
obliged to incarnate again and again in them. But as they
became better and better, this led to their gradually passing
on into the higher races; and souls which were previously
embodied in quite subordinate races developed to a higher
stage, and were able later to reincarnate in the bodily
successors of the leading population of Europe. These bodily
successors of the leading population multiplied, and as these
souls increased in number in this direction, they became more
numerous than they originally were. After having progressed and
improved, they incarnated in the leading population of Europe,
and the development then took place in such a way that, on the
whole, as a physical race, the bodily forms in which the most
ancient European population had originally incarnated died out;
the souls forsook the bodies which were formed in a certain
way, and which then died out. The offspring of the lower
races decreased in number while the higher increased until
gradually the lowest classes of the European population
completely die out. This is a definite process, which we must
grasp. The souls develop further, the bodies die out. For this
reason we must be careful to distinguish between soul
development and race development. The souls reappear in the
bodies belonging to higher races. the lower race bodies die
out. A process such as this does not take place without effect.
When over large areas something disappears as it were, it does
not disappear into nothing, but it dissolves and then
exists in a different form. When in ancient times the worst
part of the population of which I have just now spoken, died
out, the whole region became gradually inhabited by demons,
representing the products of dissolution, the products of the
putrefaction of that which had died out.

Thus the whole of Europe and Asia Minor were filled with the
spiritualised products of putrefaction from the worst part of
the population which had died out. These demons of putrefaction
endured for a long time, and later they acted upon mankind. It
came about that these demons of putrefaction which were
incorporated in the spiritual atmosphere, as it were, gained
influence upon human beings and affected them in such a way
that their feelings were permeated by them. The effect may be
seen from the following example: —When at a later date,
at the time of the Migration of the
Peoples, great bodies of people came over from
Asia to Europe, amongst them came Attila with his hordes. His
invasion was the cause of great terror to many of those who
lived in Europe and through this state of terror people laid
themselves open to the demoniacal influences still persisting.
Gradually through these demoniacal beings there developed — as
a consequence of the terror produced by the hordes coming
over from Asia — that which appeared as leprosy, the epidemic
disease of the Middle Ages. This disease was nothing else than
the consequence of the state of terror and fear experienced by
the people at that time. But the terror and fear could only
lead to this result in the souls which had been exposed to the
demoniacal forces of former times.

I
have now described to you why it was possible for people to be
laid hold of by a disease — which was later practically
exterminated in Europe — and why it was so widespread at the
time we mentioned in our last lecture. In Europe the peoples
which had to die out because they had not developed upwards
became extinct, but the after-effect was seen in the form of
diseases which attacked mankind. The disease we have
mentioned, leprosy, is thus seen to be the result of spiritual
and psychic causes.

This whole condition was/had now to be counteracted. Further
development could only come about if that which has just been
described was entirely removed from Europe. An example of how
it was taken away was described in the last lecture, where we
showed that while, on the one hand, the after-effects of what
was unmoral existed as demons of disease, on the other hand,
strong moral impulses appeared as in Francis of Assisi. Through
his possession of strong moral impulses he gathered others
around him who acted also in the same way as he, although in a
lesser degree. Really there were very many who at that time
worked as he did, but this activity did not last very long.

Now how had such a soul-power come into Francis of Assisi? As
we are not gathered together to study external science, but to
understand human morality from its spiritual and occult
foundations, we must examine a few occult or spiritual truths.
Let us inquire: Whence really came such a soul as that of
Francis of Assisi? We can only understand such a soul as this
if we investigate it a little; if we take the trouble to find
what was hidden in its depths.

I
must remind you that the old division into castes in India
really received its first blow, its first shock, through
Buddhism, for among many other things which Buddhism introduced
into Asiatic life was the idea that it did not recognise the
division into castes as something justifiable; that as far as
it was possible in Asia it recognised the power of each human
being to attain to the highest possible to man. We know too
that this was only possible through the pre-eminent1y great and
mighty individuality of Buddha. We also know that Buddha became
a Buddha in the incarnation of which we are usually told and
that in the earlier part of his life he was a Bodhisattva,
which represents the stage next below Buddhahood. Through the
fact that this son of King Suddodana, in the twenty-ninth year
of his life, experienced and felt deeply in himself the great
truth of life and sorrow, he had attained the greatness to
announce in Asia the teaching known as Buddhism.

Connected with this development of the Bodhisattva up to
Buddha, there was something else of which we must not lose
sight, namely, the fact that the individuality which had passed
through many incarnations as Bodhisattva and then risen to the
rank of Buddha, when it became Buddha had to dwell for the last
time in a physical body on earth. Thus he who is raised from
Bodhisattva to Buddha enters into an incarnation which for him
is the last. From this time onwards, such an
individuality only works down from spiritual heights, he
still works, but only spiritually. Thus we now have the fact
that the individuality of Buddha has only worked down from
spiritual heights since the fifth century before Christ.

But, Buddhism continued. It was able to influence in a
certain way not only Asiatic life, but the spiritual life of
the whole of the then known world. You know how Buddhism spread
in Asia. You know how great is the number of its followers
there. But in a more hidden and veiled form it also spread into
the mental life of Europe; and we have particularly to point
out that the portion of the great teaching of Buddha relating
to the equality of man was especially acceptable to the
population of Europe, because this population was not arranged
on the plan of caste divisions, but rather upon the idea of the
equality of all human beings. On the shores of the Black Sea
there existed an occult school which lasted far into the
Christian era. This school was guided by certain human beings
who set themselves as their highest ideal that part of the
teaching of Buddha which we have just described, and through
their having taken into themselves the Christian impulse along
with it, were able in the early centuries of Christianity to
throw new light upon what Buddha had given to humanity. If I
were to describe to you this occult school on the Black Seas as
the occultist or spiritual investigator sees it — and you will
understand me best if I do this — I must do it in the following
manner: —

People, who to begin with had external teachers in the physical
world, came together there. They were instructed in the
doctrines and principles which had proceeded from Buddhism, but
these were permeated by the impulses which came into the world
through Christianity. Then, after the pupils had been
sufficiently prepared, they were brought to where the deeper
forces lying within them, the deeper forces of wisdom could be
brought forth, so that they were led to clairvoyant vision of
the spiritual world and were able to see into the spiritual
worlds. The first thing attained by the pupils of this occult
school, was, for example, the recognition of those who no
longer descended to the physical plane. But this they could
only do after they had been accustomed to it by the teachers
incarnated in the physical body. In this way they came to know
Buddha. Thus, these occult pupils learned to know Buddha face
to face, if one may so speak of his spiritual being. In this
way he continued to work spiritually in the occult pupils and
thus his power worked down to the physical plane, although he
himself no longer descended to physical embodiment in the
physical world.

Now the pupils in this occult school were grouped according to
their maturity into
two unequal divisions, and only the more advanced were chosen
for the smaller division. Most of these pupils were able to
become so clairvoyant that they came in touch with a being who
strove with all his might to bring his impulses through to the
physical world, and although he himself did not descend into
this world they learned all the secrets of Buddha and all that
he wished to have accomplished. Most of these pupils remained
as such, clairvoyants, but there were some who, in addition to
the qualities of knowledge and of psychic clairvoyance, had
developed the spiritual element to a remarkable degree, which
cannot be separated from a certain humility, a certain highly
evolved capacity for devotion. These, then, attained to where
they could receive the Christ-impulse in an advanced degree
precisely in this occult school. They could also become
clairvoyant in such a way that they became the specially chosen
followers of Saint Paul and received the Christ-impulse
directly in life.

Thus from this school proceeded two groups, as it were, one
group which possessed the impulse to carry the teaching of
Buddha everywhere, although his name was not mentioned in
connection with it, and a second group which, in addition,
received the Christ-impulse. Now the difference between these
two kinds did not appear very strongly in that particular
incarnation, it only appeared in the next. The pupils who had
not received the Christ-impulse but who had only gained the
Buddha-impulse, became the teachers of the equality and
brotherhood of man; on the other hand the pupils who had also
received the Christ-impulse, in the next incarnation were such
that this Christ-impulse worked up further so that not only
could they teach (and they did not consider this their chief
task) but they worked more especially through their moral
power

One such pupil of the occult school on the Black Sea, was born
in his next incarnation as Francis of Assisi. No wonder, then,
that in him there was the wisdom which he had received, the
knowledge of the brotherhood of mankind, of the equality of all
men, of the necessity to love all men equally, no wonder that
this teaching pulsated through his soul and also that his soul
was permeated and strengthened by the Christ-impulse.

Now how did this Christ-impulse work further in his next
incarnation? It acted in such a way that, when in his next
incarnation Francis of Assisi was transposed into a community
in which the old demons of diseases were especially active —
this Christ-impulse approached the evil substance of the
disease-demons through him, and absorbed it into itself, thus
removing it from mankind. Before this, however, the
Christ-impulse incorporated itself in this substance in such a
way that it first became visible to Francis of Assisi in the
vision in which he saw the palace when he was called upon to
take upon himself the burden of poverty. The
Christ-impulse had here revived in him and streamed forth
from him, and laid hold of these disease-demons. His
moral forces thereby became so strong that they could take away
the harmful spiritual substances which had produced the
disease. It was through this alone that the power was produced
to bring to a higher development what I have described to you
as the after-effect of the old Atlantean element, to purify
Europe from these substances and sweep them away from the
earth.

Consider the life of Francis of Assisi; notice what a
remarkable course it took. He was born in the year 1182. We
know that the first years of the life of a human being are
devoted principally to the development of the physical body. In
the physical body is developed chiefly that which comes to
light through external heredity. Hence there appeared in him
first of all that which originated through external heredity
from the European population. These qualities gradually came
out, as his etheric body developed from the seventh to the
fourteenth year, like any other human being. In this etheric
body appeared primarily that quality which as the
Christ-impulse had worked directly in him in the mysteries on
the Black Sea. From his fourteenth year, at the dawn of his
astral life the Christ power became particularly active within
him, in such a way that there entered into his astral body that
which had been in connection with the atmosphere of the earth
since the Mystery of Golgotha. For Francis of Assisi was a
personality who was permeated by the external power of Christ,
owing to his having sought for the Christ power, in his
previous incarnation, in that particular place of
initiation on the shores of the Black Sea.

Thus we see how differentiations act in humanity, for
differentiation must come about. For that which by earlier
events has been thrust down to a lower condition is raised up
once more through special events in the course of human
development. On another occasion a particularly important
uplifting took place in the evolution of humanity, one
which exoterically will always be incomprehensible; for
this reason people have really ceased to reflect upon, it, but
esoterically it can be fully explained. There were some who had
developed very quickly from the strata of the Western
population, who had gradually wrestled their way up from
the lowest rungs of the ladder, but who had not risen very high
in intellectual development, but had remained comparatively
humble and simple men, chosen ones as it were, who could only
be uplifted at a certain time by a mighty impulse which
reflected itself in them; these were those who are described as
the twelve Apostles of Jesus. They were the cast-off extract of
the lower castes which did not reach India. From them had to be
taken the substance for the disciples of Christ Jesus.
[We are not here referring to previous
or succeeding incarnations of the individualities of the
Apostles, but solely to the physical ancestry of the bodies in
which the personalities of the Apostles were incarnated. The
succession of incarnations and the physical line of heredity
must always be distinguished.]

Thus we have discovered the source of the moral power in that
chosen personality, Francis of Assisi. Do not say that taking
ordinary human rules into consideration, it would be too much
to expect a person to realise the ideals manifested in Francis
of Assisi. Certainly what I have said was not with the
intention of recommending anyone to become a Francis of Assisi.
One only wished to point out by means of a striking example,
how moral power enters man, whence it can spring and how it
must be understood as something quite special, something that
was originally present in man. But from the whole spirit of
what I have said up to now you may gather one thing with regard
to other forces in human evolution, namely, that humanity has
first gone through a descent and has now undertaken an ascent
again.

If
we go back in human evolution we pass through the
post-Atlantean epoch to the Atlantean catastrophe, then
into the Atlantean epoch and then further back to the Lemurian
epoch. When we then arrive at the starting-point of earthly
humanity we come to a time when man, not only as regards his
spiritual qualities, was much closer to the Deity, when he
first developed not only out of the spiritual life, but also
out of morality. So that at the beginning of earthly evolution
we do not find immorality but
morality. Morality is a divine gift which was given to man in
the beginning, it was part of the original content in human
nature, just as spiritual power was in human nature before
man's deepest descent. Fundamentally, a great part of what is
unmoral came into humanity in the manner we have described,
namely, by the betrayal of the higher Mysteries in the ancient
Atlantean epoch.

Thus morality is something about which we cannot say that it
has only developed gradually in humanity, it is something which
lies at the bottom of the human soul, something which has only
been submerged by the later civilisations. When we look at the
matter in the right light we cannot even say that
immorality came into the world through folly; it
came into the world through the secrets of wisdom being
disclosed to persons who were not sufficiently mature to
receive them. It was through this that people were tempted,
they succumbed and then degenerated. Therefore in order that
they might rise it was above all necessary that something
should occur which would sweep away from the human soul all
that is contrary to moral impulses. Let us put this in a
somewhat different form.

Let us suppose we have before us a criminal, a man whom we call
especially immoral; on no account
must we think that this immoral man
is devoid of moral impulses. They are in him and we shall find
them if we delve down to the bottom of his soul. There is no
human soul — with the exception of black magicians, with whom
we are not now concerned — in which there is not the
foundation of what is morally good. If a person is wicked, it
is because that which has originated in the course of time as
spiritual error overlies moral goodness. Human nature is not
bad; originally it was really good. The concrete observation of
human nature shows us that in its deepest being it is good and
that it was through spiritual errors that man deviated from the
moral path. Therefore moral errors must in course of time once
more be made good in man. Not only must the mistakes be made
good but their results as well, for where evil has such mighty
after-effects that demons of disease have been produced,
super-moral forces such as were in Francis of Assisi must be
also active.

The foundation for the improvement of a human being always
consists in taking away his spiritual error. And what is
necessary to this end? Gather together what I have told you
into a fundamental feeling; let the facts speak to you, let
them speak to your feelings and perceptions, and try to gather
them together into one fundamental feeling, and then you will
say: What is the attitude which a man needs to hold regarding
his fellow-man? It is that he needs the belief in the original
goodness of humanity as a whole, and of each single human being
in particular. That is the first thing we must say if we wish
to speak at all in words concerning morality; that
something immeasurably good lies at the bottom of human nature.
That is what Francis of Assisi realised; and when he was
approached by some of those stricken with the horrible disease
we have described, as a good Christian of that day, he said
somewhat as follows:-- “A disease such as this is in a
certain way the consequence of sin; but as sin is in the first
instance spiritual error and disease the result it must
therefore be removed by a mighty opposing power.” Hence
Francis of Assisi saw by the sinner how, in a certain way, the
punishment of sin manifests itself externally; but he also saw
the good in human nature, he saw what lies at the bottom of
each human being as divine spiritual forces. That which
distinguished Francis of Assisi most was his sublime faith in
the goodness lying in each human being, even in one who was
being punished.

This made it possible for the contrary power to appear in his
soul, and this is the power of love which gives and helps
morally, and indeed even heals. And no one, if he really
develops the belief in the original goodness of human nature
into an active impulse can arrive at anything else than to love
human nature as such.

It
is primarily these two fundamental impulses which are able to
found a truly moral life. First, the belief in the divine at
the bottom of every human soul, and secondly, the boundless
love of man which springs from this belief. For if was
only this measureless love which could bring Francis of Assisi
to the sick, the crippled and those stricken with leprosy. A
third thing which may be added and is necessarily built upon
these two foundations, is that a person who has a firm belief
in the goodness of the human soul, and who loves human nature,
cannot do otherwise than admit that what we see proceeding from
the co-operation of the originally good foundation of the human
soul with practical love, justifies a perspective for the
future which may be expressed in the fact that every single
soul, even though it may have descended far from the height of
spiritual life, can be led back again to this spiritual life.
This third impulse implies the hope for each human soul that it
can find the way back again to the Divine-Spiritual.

We
may say that Francis of Assisi heard these three things
expressed very very often; they were continually in his mind
during his initiation in the Mysteries of Colchis, on the Black
Sea. And we may also say, that in the life he had to lead as
Francis of Assisi, he preached very little about faith or love,
but was himself their embodiment. Faith did not work, hope did
not work; one must indeed have them, but only love is
effective. It stands in the centre, and it is that which, in
that single incarnation of Francis of Assisi, really carried
the actual development of humanity forward in the moral sense
towards the divine.

How did this love — which we know was the result of his
initiation in the Colchis Mysteries — develop in St.
Francis? We have seen that in him appeared the knightly virtues
of the ancient European spirit. He was a valiant boy. Valour,
bravery, was transformed in his individuality, which was
permeated by the Christ-impulse, into active practical love. We
see the old valour, the old bravery resurrected once more in
the love manifested in Francis of Assisi. The ancient valour
transposed into the spiritual; bravery transposed into the
spiritual is love.

It
is interesting to see how very much of what has just been said
corresponds also to the external historical course of human
evolution. Let us go back a few centuries into the
pre-Christian era. Among the people who have given the
principal name to the fourth post-Atlantean age, the Greeks, we
find the philosopher Plato. Amongst other things, Plato wrote
about morals, about the virtues of man. By the way in which he
wrote, we can recognise that he was reticent concerning the
highest things, the actual secrets, but what he felt able to
say he put into the mouth of Socrates. Now, in a period of
European culture in which the Christ-impulse had not yet
worked, Plato described the highest virtues he recognised,
namely, the virtues which the Greeks looked upon as those which
a moral man ought to have above all things. He described first
of all three virtues, and a fourth with which we shall later
become acquainted. The first was “Wisdom.” Wisdom
as such, Plato looked upon as virtue. This is justified, for in
the most varied directions we have found that wisdom lies at
the foundation of moral life. In India the wisdom of the
Brahmins lay at the foundation of human life. In Europe this
was indeed withdrawn into the background, but it existed in the
Norse Mysteries where the European Brahmins had to make good
again that which had been spoiled through the betrayal in the
old Atlantean epoch. Wisdom stands behind all morality, as we
shall see in our next lecture. Plato also, described, in the
manner corresponding to the Mysteries, as the second virtue —
“Valour” — that which we meet with in the
population of Europe. As the third virtue he described
Temperance or “Moderation” that is, the opposite of
the passionate cultivation of the lower human impulses. These
are the three chief Platonic virtues: Wisdom, Valour or
Bravery; and Moderation or Temperance, the curbing of the
sensual impulses active in man. Finally, the harmonious
balancing of these three virtues Plato describes as a fourth
virtue, which he calls “Justice.”

Here is described, by one of the most eminent European minds of
pre-Christian times, what were looked upon at that time as the
most important qualities in human nature. Valour, bravery, is
in the European population permeated by the
Christ-impulse and by what we call

“ I ” or the Ego. Bravery, which in Plato appears
as virtue, is here spiritualised and thereby becomes “
love.” The most important thing is that we should see
how, moral impulses come into the human race, how that which
formerly existed in the form we have described becomes
something entirely different. Now without disparagement to
Christian morality we cannot describe as the only virtues,
wisdom, temperance, valour and justice, for we might receive
the reply: “ If you had all these and yet you had not
love you would never enter into the Kingdom of
Heaven.”

Let us bear in mind the time when, as we have seen, there was
poured out into humanity an impulse, a current of such a nature
that wisdom and bravery were spiritualised and re-appeared as
love. But we shall go still further into the question as to how
wisdom, moderation or temperance and justice, have been
developed, and thereby will appear what is the particular moral
mission of the Anthroposophica1 Movement in the present day.